Reporting Hazardous Occurrences at Sea from the Aspect of Maritime Professionals

Abstract

As near-misses are considered precursors to accidents and share the same root causes, reporting them to improve safety and reduce accidents is imperative. Near-miss reporting in shipping is a regulatory requirement under the International Safety Management Code (ISM Code), intended to improve maritime safety and pollution prevention. This objective is achieved by trustworthy reporting of hazardous occurrences on board ships. After reporting, serious near-miss events are investigated and analysed. The data obtained is used to implement corrective actions, such as more adequate and safer procedures. However, seafarers are not reporting all observed near-miss events due to various factors that act as barriers and thereby prevent reporting. Besides underreporting, which is recognised as the most significant problem in near-miss management systems implemented on board ships, fabricated near-miss reports are the second one. Therefore it is the aim of this research to investigate what types of near-miss seafarers report, if they fabricate them, and if so, why. To achieve the aim of the study, the authors have created a short questionnaire for active and experienced seafarers. The questionnaire was internationally distributed and, in the end, involved 102 participants. The responses have been analysed by descriptive statistics, and furthermore, the participants have been divided into groups (division by rank and by experience) to investigate if there are any statistically important differences between them. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to identify possible differences. The analysis of responses has pointed out that seafarers seem to frequently fabricate near-miss reports in order to comply with company requested near-miss report quotas. However, although they fabricate reports, most respondents believe that near-miss management systems improve safety at sea. In addition, no significant differences have been observed between the groups except for one. Although considered important for maritime safety, near-miss management systems are compromised with fabricated reports made to comply with requested reports "quotas", whereas the most experienced maritime professionals fabricate more than others. It can be concluded that learning from near-misses and incidents in the maritime industry relies on a significant number of fabricated reports and focuses on nonexistent events. Instead of leading to safer shipping, conclusions drawn from such reports create an unsafe atmosphere, where actual and serious events are kept hidden, thereby rendering learning impossible.